Thursday, 2/28

Last Day of Humanities Until April 1st!!! 

Starter:  

• What is one question that you have for your peer critiquer based on the  rubric? In other words,  which category do you think you need to most carefully refine? 
• Example Questions: Have I cited my evidence correctly?  Do my topic sentences clearly explain to you what each paragraph will be about?  

• Do you include at least one reference from EACH of the three categories on the mid-term review guide (page 2 of the instructions for the essay)?

AGENDA:

* Announcements*

• capitalize Affirmative Action
• specify in intro you're talking about race-based programs at higher ed
• send your SLC notes to the appropriate people
• Conference sign-ups

1.  Go over Peer Critique instructions and the example on page 2
2. Peer Critique:  Aim to for 2  critiques.  For the 2nd critiquer- seek out someone with whom you normally do not work.

3. Refinement

Wednesday 2/27

In-Class Essay Today

1. Announcements
2. Any last minute questions?
3. Write!

Tuesday 2/26

Starter:
A. Review your Lincoln timed essay feedback from me.  You should have the rubric or the emailed word document I sent.

• Write down an answer to this question:  What piece of feedback did I give you that most directly impacted your grade or was most necessary to improve your essay? 

B. Compare my feedback with the mid-term essay rubric.

• What question(s) do you have about this rubric?
• Which two categories are more heavily weighted and why do you think that is?
• Which category will be your hardest category?  Why?

Agenda:

1.  Ashley addresses questions about the rubric (DON'T Say "I believe", etc... + Paragraph Topic Sentences)

2.  Review the Essay instructions (page 1 and 2 of the handout)

3.  30 minutes: Individual Mid-term review "Merry-go-round":  Collect 1-2 things from each poster/station that you think will be most helpful in writing your essay.  In which paragraph of your essay would it fit?  Share your notes with your group members.

4. Review the directions for how to quote properly (page 3 of the Essay Instructions handout)

• PRACTICE
• Open a new document
• Find a piece of evidence that you want to use in your essay (either from McKinsey or another credible source)
• Introduce the evidence 
• Correct format the citation using one of my examples (block-indent or footnote) as a model
• Analyze the quote in one sentence.
• Let me check your example while you work on your outline

5. Review the example outline and begin essay outline (last page of Essay Instructions)

You may finish your outline for homework, but wait until class tomorrow to start the essay.

Monday, 2/25

Starter:
Get out your hard copy of the mid-term guide handout or download this one and mark with * those that you think will be most useful in your mid-term essay on Affirmative Action given that you will need to pull from each of the bold categories on the guide and include historical references in your paper.

Agenda:
1. Review for the mid-term essay in groups
Mid-Term Group Review Directions

2.  Choice work time:
- Individually review for the mid-term essay
- SLC Prep
SLC Prep Guidelines

Announcements:

• SLCs are Wednesday
• Honors Seminar round 2 is tomorrow during X-block
• Mid-term essay is due Friday by the end of class
• Honors assignments for Gatsby are due today if you had an extension.  

Friday, 2/22

DEBATE DAY

You have 15 minutes in your group to rehearse and review notes.  The first round of debate will start promptly at 8:35 for Class A  and 10:45 for Class B.

Freeman Children Debate Schedule
Spicy Unicorn Debate Schedule


REMEMBER TO.....

• TURN IN YOUR DEBATE PREP NOTES
• SIGN UP FOR SLC'S
• HONORS LUNCH MEETING!

Homework:

Optional review for the mid-term by skimming through the readings and review the ideas listed on the review sheet.  Focus on readings/events/ideas that you think you can most use in an essay that asks you to defend your actual position on Affirmative Action and forces you to draw on historical contexts that we studied this semester to either support OR concede your point to the other side.  

Mid-Term Review Guide

Thursday, 2/21

STARTER
Read the Two Sample Opening Statements and with a partner, complete the peer critique on one of them:

1. Positive Feedback: What is good about this statement?
2. Constructive (Specific and Helpful) critique:

• Does the argument make sense?
• Does it include at least one form of rhetoric? What rhetoric does it use? Is it appropriate and persuasive?
• Can you tell what the speaker's assigned "angle" or "team split" is?
• Does it need more or better evidence?
• Does it include evidence from credible sources AND state who the source is?

AGENDA
Freeman Children Debate Schedule

Spicy Unicorn Debate Schedule

• Review Debate Schedule and Format
• Project Work Time:  Review the Checklist
• Get out your starters for me to check during class today.
• Check out these CLOSING STATEMENTS examples from the Intelligence Squared debate

HOMEWORK:

Email me your debate prep notes by the beginning of class tomorrow!!!

ANNOUNCEMENTS
SLC Sign-up
Mid-Term Review Guide

Pictures of Notes from the White Board

Wednesday, February 20th

STARTERS
Freeman Children's Starter: Come up with 2-3 questions for our guest skyper: Justice Castenada
Justice's Bio

Unicorns' Starter:
 What moral philosophy does your stance most align with or how would you use one of these philosophies to justify your position? Utilitarianism, Deontology or Rights Ethics or Rawls’ Veil of Ignorance or some combination of the four?

a.      For example:  You might say that if you were to make a decision behind the veil of ignorance for the affirmative action policy of University of Texas and were ignorant as to the position you would be born into in society, you would want to ensure that no matter who you are born as, UT’s affirmative action policy would be the most just/fair.  Based on that consideration, you would explain why your position on AA is most just.

AGENDA
1. Freeman Children Skype with Justice

1b. Review the Checklist for this week's Project Work Time

2. Project Work Time

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• SLC Sign-ups
• Honors lunch meeting on Friday, turn in your seminar prep if you are in round 1 
• Round 1 Seminar is this Friday during X-block. Round 2 is next Tuesday.
• Cell phones should no longer be out on  your desk.  Keep them in your bag unless you've asked my permission to use them for music during independent work times.
• Trash in the back of the room- clean it up or I'll cancel snacks in class.
• Wednesday's discussion on the Death Penalty at the Fort!  (See my email)

GOOD RESOURCES:
For BOTH Teams:

• An Article from Sunday's The Chronicle that does a great job explaining the pending Fisher v. UT decision and arguments for/against Texas's Affirmative Action program 

• What You NEED To Know about Fisher v. Texas

For the "NO" teams:
Affirmative Action and Stereotypes- a study on India and leadership roles for women:

• http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/04/25/affirmative-action-changing-stereotypes/

• http://poresp.wordpress.com/2012/10/30/affirmative-action-and-stereotypes

For the "YES" Teams:
Stereotype Threat: http://www.reducingstereotypethreat.org/definition.html / 


For Fun:
2 Minutes of Goats Yelling Like Humans

Friday, February 15th

STARTER
February Blues and School Stress got you down?  Take some advice from this little girl on how to stay positive!


NPR Radio Clip on Fisher v. Texas and Affirmative Action

• What was the immediate effect of the federal district appeals court in 1996 that got rid of any race-based Affirmative action programs?

• What did Texas do to fix this problem?

• How do UT officials defend themselves against Fisher's claims?

• What do Fisher's lawyers claim?

• What are the prospects for the Supreme Court's verdict?

AGENDA

** Spicy Unicorns Skype with Justice Castenada @ 10:40 **

1.  Ashley define quota systems and review strict scrutiny: Constitutional Status of Affirmative Action

2.Project Work Time Goals

            A. Finish Supreme Court Case research and share your findings with your group.  Can your team use any of the ideas from these cases in your debate?

            B. Decide which angle each group member will take in supporting your position and begin researching.

•  Process for Angle Decision:
•  Review your team line
•  Decide which arguments are most critical to your stance
• Divide up these arguments among your group and dive into research to find evidence/statistics/arguments to back up that specific angle.

Thursday, February 14th

Agenda
1. Debate Teams Announcement
2. Debate Format and Crafting Team Lines ppt
3. Project work time

NEW RESOURCES

• New Good Resource with more links: http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/educ/affirmative-action-resources.aspx 

Project Work Time Goals
1.  Divide up the 4 Supreme Court Cases among your group
2. Research your assigned case and complete the requirements under Step 3 of the Requirements Guidelines document and the Updated Template Doc
3.  Continue finding evidence for your position

Wednesday, February 13th

STARTER
Analyze the chart from the McKinsey Report (page 10) and answer these questions with a neighbor:

• What is the x axis measuring?
• What is the y axis measuring?
• What test is this graph based off of?
• What conclusions can you draw from this graph?
• How does this graph relate to our Affirmative Action debate?
• What additional information do you need to know to better understand this graph?

 McKinsey Report on the achievement gap does the following things:

• Explains why the academic achievement gap matters to our country and to individuals
• Offers key findings on the international, racial, income and systems based gaps facing the U.S.
• Assesses the economic impact of these gaps for the economy as a whole and for individuals
• Suggests potential implications/solutions and suggests further areas of research/study.

AGENDA

1.  Class B: Develop questions for Justice Castañeda who will be skype-ing in on Friday to chat with us about his work in education, poverty and urban planning.

2. Project Work Time Goals

• Continue recording arguments from BOTH sides of the debate
• Read the McKinsey Report on the Achievement Gap for statistics that might apply to either side of the debate.

3. Class poll on everyone's position.  Complete the form with your preferences for the debate.

Announcements:
TEWWG Final Quiz Answer Key

Tuesday, February 12th

STARTER
Analyze the Exhibit C from page 13 of the McKinsey Report

With a partner, answer these questions:

• What is this data measuring? (What do the #s mean?)
• What does "poor" and "non-poor" mean according to this chart?
• What conclusions can you draw from this chart?  
• How do you know your conclusions are not influenced by your own bias?
• What might be some causes of this particular achievement gap?
• What might be some solutions to addressing this achievement gap?

AGENDA
1. Intro to Kozol's "Educational Apartheid"-  GOOD RESOURCE
2. Read and discuss Tuscon Public Schools: NY Times Article

• What recent court ruling does this article react to?
• What are the problems facing Tuscon public schools and what are some causes of  some of these problems according to the article?
• What solutions for the achievement gap in Tuscon does this article pose?
• Do these solutions suggest we should only focus on K-12 education and not higher education/Affirmative Action?

3 .Ashley’s short ppt to introduce assigned reading

4. Project Work Time

Announcements:
Answer Key to Final TEWWG Quiz

Monday, February 11th

STARTER
Review:  What is Affirmative Action?  What is an example of an education-based affirmative action program?

 Introduction to the landscape of affirmative action.

 http://millercenter.org/debates/affirmative-action video from 3:30-6:15

AGENDA

1. Affirmative Action Debate mini-project drop! (Project Guidelines)

2. Watch first 20 minutes of the  Intelligence Squared Debate (opening statements):


 http://intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/past-debates/item/572-its-time-to-end-affirmative-action 

3. Project work time

HOMEWORK:

• Seminar Make-up is due tomorrow!!
• Honors:  Proposal is due WEDNESDAY

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Honors:  Lunch meeting on Wednesday
• TEWWG Quizzes are in grade book now.  Waiting for two make-ups before I hand them back out and post answer key.
• If  you need to make-up the seminar, that is due tomorrow. Talk to me outside of class if you need an extension for a legitimate reason.
• Seminar Grades:  If I disagreed with you, I'll email you.  Otherwise your self-assessment will stand and will appear in grade book by the end of this week.

Friday, February 8th

Announcements:
1.  Email me your Brown v. Board notes
2.  Email me your seminar self-assessment
3. Review Seminar Make-up guidelines: Seminar Make-Up and Grade Bump Instructions
4. Sunday is local's day at Purgatory! Come shred it up with me.

Starter: 
Is there anything you feel passionate enough about to protest for and risk expulsion from school or imprisonment? If so, what is it and why?  If not, why do you think that is?

When you're done: Check Power School to make sure you are caught up on work in my class.  Are you missing assignments? Did you turn in Brown v. Board notes and seminar self-assessment from yesterday?

Agenda:
A.  Discuss Brown v. Board article from the Atlantic and review learning objectives for the film
B. Affirmative Action defined + Comics Analysis
C. University of Michigan's Admissions point system
D.  Pre-write on your stance on Affirmative Action (complete the form below)
E.  Begin film: With All Deliberate Speed about desegregation of public schools

Seminar Make-up Guidelines

If you MISSED yesterday's seminar, please do "Detailed Responses", "Connections" and "Questions" as explained on this handout: Seminar Make-Up and Grade Bump Instructions

If you want to bump your seminar grade by 10%, please complete all sections as explained on the above link.

DEADLINE:  Submit your seminar make-up by Tuesday (2/12)

Thursday, February 7th

Seminar!
+
Non-Seminar Work Time

I.  Do some brief research to figure out what Brown v. Board of Education was and what the supreme court ruling was.  Additionally, include a quote from one of the justices that clearly summarizes the court's ruling and reasoning.  

II. Read this article: Atlantic Article: Brown v. Board a Failure?

III. Respond to these questions:
1. How have the #s of schools under desegregation orders changed since the years after Brown v. Board?
2. What were the outcomes of the desegregation efforts of the 1970s and 80s?
3. What were the inconveniences and challenges of desegregation plans?
4. Why have schools become more segregated since the 1990's?

IV.  Send me a copy of your notes and then you have free/work time for the remainder of your non-seminar work time.

Homework:   
Self-Assessment on Seminar

Wednesday, February 6th

Starter:
School attendance, particularly in rural areas, tended to be erratic, and Virginia had one of the lowest rates of attendance in the nation in the years before World War II. Black schools, however, were so underfunded that most of them were overcrowded. In 1900 the average black school had 37 percent more pupils in attendance than the average white school. Shown here are images of schools for whites and schools from blacks from two different counties in Virginia in the 1920s-1950s. Images are Courtesy Library of Congress.

Write down your basic observations of the physical differences between these schools. Which late 19th century (1800's) supreme court case might these images and school conditions challenge?

Auditorium of Farmville High School for Whites, Prince Edward County, VA

Farmville High School (Exterior)

Robert Russa Moton High School for blacks, Prince Edward County, VA

 Robert Russa Moton High School 

 Black Elementary School, Halifax County, VA

White Elementary School, Halifax County, VA

Agenda
1. Brief history of Education during Reconstruction
2. Seminar prep work time

Why are Jim Crow Laws called "Jim Crow"?

Tuesday, February 5th, 2013

Starter

Agenda
1. Discuss Zinn Chapter 9: "Slavery without Submission, Emancipation without Freedom"
2. Review Skit Requirements and Prepare skits on Reconstruction primary source documents
3. Pass back Lincoln Timed-Essay with brief discussion on your work and ideas
4. Review Seminar prep guidelines

Announcements:

• Thursday's Seminar Groups
• Honors Lunch Meeting tomorrow!
• Power Lunch today!

Homework:
Seminar prep due Thursday morning.

TEWWG/Reconstruction Seminar Prep Handout

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B2QC-culCKvHdW1meTVtWFVOQjg/edit

Friday, February 1st

Agenda
1. Final quiz on chapters 6-20
2. Review the quiz
3. Read primary source documents and begin skits:  Reconstruction Skit Instructions


Homework

• By TUESDAY read chapter 9 from Howard Zinn's Young People's History

• Honors:  read pages 184-210 in chapter 9 of People's History. If  you don't have the text, start reading from the paragraph that begins with "White abolitionists did courageous and pioneering work"  at that website.